Mina Part 1
by Obomonus
Summary: An introduction to Mina and her brother Obomonus
1. Chapter 1

'_It's a hole in the wall but the drinks are cheap'._

Mina snorted as she recalled the words of wisdom she received from Quell. She was sure he meant well with his recommendation but she inwardly reminded herself to give her upstanding Besalisk friend a friendly punch in his neck the next time she was in his sector. The drinks were definitely cheap for a reason. Watered down… Served in a mug that probably hadn't been washed since the last Imperial invasion.

Mina cringed at the thought that the last person to have sipped from her cup may have been some brutish, sweaty Mandalorian. She grimaced at the thought and wiped her mouth with a sleeve that looked like it had not cleaned since _before_the last Imperial invasion.

She spun lazily around in her barstool to survey the scene and wasn't very surprised to see the usual array of degenerates. Death stick dealers, bounty hunters, jawas, and other affiliated scum huddled together in tight groups around pazaak tables with seemingly little interest in her… which suited her just fine. She was waiting for someone and after the tussle she had earlier and she really did not feel like drinking with anyone. She didn't think she would have too much trouble keeping away unwanted advances considering she looked a mess.

Her jet-black, chin length hair was tussled and knotted from the headlock she had recently received. Her leather pants, though alluringly snug, had several large tears in them which only served to accentuate her skinned knees. She couldn't remember how she received that injury… probably from the fist that gave her the shiner and sent her sprawling. Her leather jacket was decorated with dust, spatters of her own blood, and little bits of random debris. Mina was simply too lazy to try to clean up. To top everything else off, her prized blaster that used to swung lazily on her hip had been stolen. She made a mental note to not take the shortcut down that alleyway to get to this place. She also noted that the hot suns of Tattooine made sweat leak down onto skinned knees and make them sting even more. She fidgeted in her chair to try to lessen the irritation a bit.

She wished she were more like her cousin. Tough. Confident. Probably the most beautiful woman that Mina has ever met… but her opinion was probably biased. She was Mina's hero and the older sister she has always wished she had. All of that beauty aside, Mina had never seen her lose a fight and she had seen her pretty little cousin in plenty of them. Much larger opponents were always caught off guard by Mina's cousin's sudden ferocity and uncanny ability to knock them unconscious quicker than Mina could even draw her now-missing blaster. She missed Miriah and wondered where she was.

During her cursory scan of her surroundings, Mina made the unfortunate mistake of making eye contact with a humanoid of some kind who was unbelievably short and probably twice as hairy. Before she could even roll her eyes, he had squeezed past a pair of inebriated Kitonaks and tried in vain to straighten his disheveled appearance a little before reaching her. Mina already had her back to him and prayed for the little man to just disappear but, of course, her wish was not to be granted today.

"Greetings to you, little lady."

Mina signed heavily and resigned herself to trying not to be rude. She didn't want trouble and from her past experience, being rude was one sure-fire way to find trouble in a fine establishment such as this. She also did not miss the irony of such a short fellow calling her a 'little lady'. She had to be five inches taller than he.

"Good evening." It was practically a whisper. Mina suddenly seemed to suddenly have an intense interest in something at the bottom of her mug as she kept her sad eyes downcast as if her drink might whisper to her a way to get rid of this guy.

"Buy you a drink", croaked the small man as he tried not to struggle too much to climb up onto the bar stool next to the haggard smuggler.

"No thanks. I'm not staying long."

"It wasn't a question. Shinzak! Can me and my new friend get a fresh round over here?" The hulking bartender skulked over and carelessly tossed two more piss-waters down in front of the pair. Some splashed up into Mina's face and she didn't bother to wipe it off.

It was just that kind of day. She bit her split bottom lip in an attempt to keep herself from breaking down. She regretted that she was only able to hold onto a few credits before her assailant fled or she would have gone to a classier and less crowded joint.

"My name is Chuck in case you were wondering, sweetheart." The miniscule man next to her swung his feet like a child and shifted his swiveling seat like a child as he stared lustily at her. Mina finally glanced at him and the man winced. "Ouch! Looks like you just ran down beggar's alley!"

Mina couldn't help but chuckle slightly at her own misfortune. "No. I should have run down beggar's alley. I mistakenly walked down beggar's alley."

Chuck stared in silence at her while scratching his hairy chest through the portion of his shirt which was open by two buttons too many. "The black eye only brings out their beautiful color, my dear".

Ah yes. Her eyes. Mina cursed them. They were the deepest shade of pure green and almost had a soft glow to them. They were large, warm, and perfectly symmetrical on her face (Or so her cousin had once told her). She inherited them from her father and she would never forgive him for it. Men of all species seemed drawn to them like ravenous Wookies to a dead animal.

"Look Chuck… you seem like a very nice uh… guy…"

"Oh I am, honey!" he interrupted, "In fact, why don't we head back to my place across the street so I can show you how nice I am?"

Mina's mind raced. Something wasn't right here. Something was very wrong. This guy wasn't just annoying. Something in the core of her being told her that this man was very dangerous.

"Sorry Chuck. I promised my brother that I would stop sleeping with handsome strangers in bars." She flashed a quick, disarming smile.

Chuck twisted the tip of his beard between two fingers; a gesture that Mina assumed meant that the little man was thinking of what to say next. "Where is this brother of yours?"

"On his way. He'll be here soon." Mina hoped that she wasn't lying.

"Oh! Well! I'll have you back real quick. REAL quick. Before he arrives. I promise. C'mon"

"No!" Mina's melancholy quickly became replaced with alarm.

"It wasn't a request! Now move!"

Chuck suddenly seized hold of Mina's sleeve and, with a strength she had not expected, yanked her forcefully from her barstool and dragged her a few feet toward the door. Several of the patrons laughed and cheered Chuck on as Mina struggled, yelped and scratched at the hands that has a vice grip on her clothing.

A silhouetted figure stepped into the doorway before Chuck could make good his escape with his prize. The setting suns behind the figure almost seemed to give the figure an ominous orange glowing aura as it stepped into the cantina. Chuck stopped dead in his tracks and released his captive. Mina scooted away from him on her rump over the filthy floor… using her hands and feet to kick herself in reverse until her back bumped into the bar.

Chuck, sensing something menacing about the newly-arrived stranger, tried to act casual and disappear back into the crowd toward the rear entrance to the cantina until he heard a familiar crack and hiss. Chuck growled at Mina without even looking at her, "Your brother is a damn Jedi!" He gulped down the lump in his throat and slowly turned toward the front door. The silhouette was now wielding one of those hissing blue light sword-things that all in the cantina feared.

Chuck hated lightsabers. Chuck hated the Jedi who used them even more. This one wasn't even one of those petite attractive female Jedi either! He found that his prior bravery had slipped away from him like sand through a sieve.

The crowd that was cheering him on a few seconds prior suddenly fell silent and returned to their drinks and games of chance… avoiding eye contact. Chuck had a fairly good idea of what was about to happen next and made a sudden dash to his left toward the rear exit but a quick blue flash appeared in his peripheral vision. For an instant, he felt himself hurtling toward the very back exit he wanted to pass through… only he felt his body pushed by an unknown force off his feet through the doorway. He was hoping that this wouldn't happen but it sure beat having to deal with the lightsaber.

Luckily for Chuck, his face broke his fall. When he finally spit out enough sand to breathe he turned to see a small ten foot trench through the sand to where he now sat. Just has he sighed in relief that the encounter with the Jedi was so over so quickly, the pain hit him. He laid on his back holding his face in his hairy hands and groaned in agony as curious onlookers passed him by without too much thought.

Mina still sat propped up against bar, trying hard to regain her feet when the hooded man stepped out of the light streaming through the front door and into the shadows along with her and extended his hand. Mina's eyes teared up as the familiar and handsome face of her brother appeared out from under the hood of his Jedi-brown robes and quickly raised her from the muck. At least at that moment he seemed handsome to her. She couldn't hold it back any longer. Her arms involuntarily wrapped themselves tight around his neck and strong sobs escaped her lips. So lost in her own fear and misery was Mina that she barely felt the arms lift her gently off her feet off the floor and carry her through the front entrance. The Jedi and the bloodied pretty girl with the sparkling, jade green, watery eyes were gone as quickly as the Jedi had appeared.

The scum seated and loitering around inside the bar breathed easier. One leaned from his chair at one of the tables to improve his view out the back door where Chuck still cradled his stinging face. The alien leaned back toward his friends occupying his table, muttered something in a guttural language to his companions and they all broke out in laughter.

"What were you thinking, Mina?" Her brother had set her down on some kind of pastaseal container a safe distance away from the bar.

"After the day I had, I needed a drink. And I was just a wee bit light in the pockets." She smirked up at him and winced in pain as she re-opened the cut on her lip. The smirk quickly disappeared. She squinted against the dying evening light of one of Tattooine's suns as she gazed up at him. "Thanks for answering my holocall, Obo."

"Would you please stop calling me that?"

Mina teased him. "What? Why? That's your name!"

"My name is Obomonus."

"Ooooh! Tough Jedi-guy needs his name to sound more like the word 'ominous'!

"Shut up Mina." His Jedi calm could only ever be broken by his annoying little sister. "Want to explain why the hairball in the cantina beat you up so badly?"

"It wasn't him that did this to me. The one in the bar was just some stooge".

"That stooge seemed to be getting the best of you".

"Hey! I was already wounded. It wasn't a fair fight."

It was Obo's turn to smirk. "Mina, I've never seen you win a fair fight."

Tears once more welled in her eyes. She didn't know why, but his sarcastic comment stung.

Obo sat on the container opposite of her, stretched his legs and felt pity for his younger sibling. "After I got your Holo. I came as fast as I could. At first, I thought you just needed credits again but I sensed that you were in danger of some kind." Obo paused for a moment awaiting an explanation from Mina that never came. "Wait. You don't need credits again, do you?"

Mina said nothing but just looked at Obo with her glittering eyes and tried her best impersonation of a lost puppy.

"Ohhh. Mina… I can't keep doing this. The Jedi aren't rich you know."

Mina pouted and batted her eyelashes.

"Oh geez. How much do you need this time?"

"A thousand to get my ship out of hoc plus pocket change."

"A thousand credits! Why is your ship impounded?"

"Well. I kind of skipped out on paying the local Hutt his parking fee last time I was here."

"Kinndo the Hutt again?" Obomonus gave his sister a disapproving look. She gave him a nod.

Obo sighed again. "Mina, I don't have a thousand credits to give you but let's go talk to Kinndo and I'll see what I can do." He paused thoughtfully a moment and raised an eyebrow. "Where's that rug of yours hiding?"

"Bowdaar's in hoc too. Kinndo the Hutt isn't letting him off the ship."

A pause in the conversation allowed Mina to look up and closely examine her brother's face. She burst out in laughter regardless of the pain in her mouth that resulted from doing so.

Obo looked at his sister, puzzled. "What? Why are you laughing? This isn't exactly a funny situation you're in!" After Mina was done being double-over, she simply pointed at her brother's face. "You look ridiculous!"

"What? The beard?"

"Is that what you're calling it?"

"Yes!" Obo reached up and smoothed out his so-called 'beard'. No one ever seemed to like it as much as he did. It was a perfectly manicured 1 inch long beard that covered his entire face except for the chin which was shaved clean. As a child Obo was a huge fan of the pod races and his favorite racer, Fin Cenzo, wore his beard the same exact way. "Well, I like it. It's a very traditional cut."

Mina grinned impishly up at him. "Okay Mr. Old-Fashioned. You better be careful where you go or people are going to start calling you _'The Stash'!" _She yelped with laughter once more until a dry heave cut it short and instead made her cough.

Obo's eyes glowered as much as any trained Jedi's could. "It's… a… beard."

"No its not, Obo! It's just sideburns and a mustache interconnected!", she coughed.

Obo made an annoyed dismissive gesture with is hand. "Enough about the beard, Mina. Let's focus here. Why did you have dealings with Kinndo? Have you been running guns again because if so, I swear I'll…" His kid sister cut him short.

"No! I have not been running guns, brother!", Mina spat. "This was a shipment of droids. Kinndo the Hutt wanted droids. So I brought him droids."

Obo raised a doubtful eyebrow and looked at her expectantly. Mina feigned utter surprise that her brother didn't believe her in a brilliant display over overacting and then continued with her explanation as if there had never been an eyebrow. "Two astromechs. One interpretor. Six guard droids. I was going to use the profits from them to pay off my overdue parking fee"

Obo's eyebrow was still raised. "So why did Kinndo seize your ship and the wookie?"

Mina scratched her head and gave a great deep sigh that seemed to come from her dusty leather boots. "He said something about how they were not the droids he was looking for. But it's on my work order which I have if he'd only allow me to get it!"

"Allow you to _get_ it? Where is it?"

Mina couldn't help but smirk a bit and throw her hands up in a gesture of surrender "On my ship, of course."

Obo shook his head incredulously. "C'mon Mina. Let's go pay your ship a visit. One way or another, we'll get into your vessel and get the work order and then I will go and have a chat with this Kinndo the Hutt character." He stood up, stretched some kinks out of his back and assisted Mina into a standing position herself. Together they set off with the sunset at their back toward what could be best described as Kinndo's Parking Lot. Mina made a quip about her brother's robes and asked why the Jedi Order seemed to have an issue with any color besides brown or grey-ish brown. She received a playful smack in the back of her head as a response.

Somewhere in the distance, the furious howls of a wookie split Tattoine's sizzling dusk air. Mina's pace quickened. Her brother tried to keep up.


	2. Chapter 2

Mina's back hit the landing gear of her cruiser. She leaned against it with mouth agape at her brother Obomonus and the two now-headless guards at the bottom of the ramp that lead up into 'The Iron Pig'.

'Ow!' Mina yelped, 'Why'd you push me!'

'Damn it Mina! Stop being an idiot! I can't just simply run behind you lopping the heads off of the people you're pissing off!'

Mina grinned widely as she regained her footing. 'Now, now Obo. Is that the Jedi way to speak to your little sister?'

Obo scowled. 'It's not the Jedi way to slaughter guards either. You've been forcing me to protect you through three different hangar bays trying to find The Pig.' He leaned against the ship and bent over to try to catch his breath.

'Then why do they call it "_The Force_" then, huh?' She raised her hands and wiggled her fingers tauntingly as she said it.

After a moment had passed, Obo stopped panting. 'Why would you ever call this monstrosity of a ship The Iron Pig?'

'Mina reached out her hand and affectionately gave her ship a loving rub on the hull. 'What would you have named her?'

Obomonus eyeballed the ship. It was an ugly hunk of junk. Wide bodied. Stout nosed. A sickening yellow coloration. 'You're right. It does look like an iron pig.'

Mina's delight in finding her ship was written all over her face. 'See?' She gave the Pig one last love slap then stooped to snap up one of the headless guard's blasters. It was an awkward fit into her holster but it would have to do. 'Blast it!', Mina growled, 'Why do all of these Hutt guards carry such big blasters?'

Obo finally placed his lightsaber back into its sheath. 'Overcompensation', he quipped thinking he was being witty.

'Then that explains your five foot long lightsaber, eh?' Mina teased her brother. His response was a simple rolling of his eyes.

'I'll just be a minute' Mina said as she punched a few buttons at the bottom of the ramp and the door to The Pig slid open. She danced up the short ramp into her beloved cruiser and her shadow slipped around the corner. The loud happy bellowing of her Wookie copilot echoed out through the hatch and around the warehouse.

Obo's hand went to his lightsaber and nervously scanned the surroundings. He was sure an angry horde of Gammoreans would come running at any moment. He cursed himself inwardly and turned to his Jedi training to calm himself. At least Mina's Wookie-friend was safe and they could all finally make a hasty exit. The shame of all of this struck him. What would his Master think? He must have slaughtered fifteen of Jinndo the Hutt's guards to keep up with Mina and get to her ship when he could have managed to simply persuade them to allow them to pass without violence. Of course it didn't help that Mina ran up to a group of five of them at the entrance, slapped two of them across the face and then dove behind some crates. What choice did he have? She knew exactly what she was doing. He wondered where she learned that trick.

He was deep in thought and regret when the sounds of the prestart engines suddenly coughed, sputtered, snorted, and finally fired up. Obo nearly jumped out of his skin by the suddenness of it all. The ugly flying contraption even sounded like a blasted pig, he thought. His ears rang from the cacophony of it all and once again his anxiety returned much to the chagrin of his training.

As the din in his eardrums subsided, there was another sound. Much fainter than The Pig but familiar nonetheless. His lightsaber was unsheathed and hummed to life quicker than the eye could perceive. His Force sensitivity alerted him to a severe threat headed his way. The distinct sound of blaster fire echoed across the bay from him toward a small door a short distance to the north. Obomonus' eyes were drawn toward the violent sound and his eyes settled over another ship in the docking bay and went wide.

'Oh no…' 'Mina!' he yelled. His little sister appeared at his side quicker than he expected. Obviously she had heard the blaster fire as well. Or did she? Her arrival was too prompt to be just a reaction to the noise. He placed this fact in the back of his mind and returned to the issue unfolding in front of them.

Mina skidding to a halt beside her brother and there was a sharp intake of breath. 'Obo… is that the…'

'Stargazer', Obo finished her question with grim certainty. The Stargazer was their cousin Miriah's ship and it was much prettier than The Iron Pig. It was practically the same model of ship as Mina's except it looked very well maintained and almost beautiful in comparison. 'You're a slob' he muttered to his sister.

Somehow Mina understood and nudged her brother unnecessarily hard in the ribs before giving the blaster at her side a yank or two in order to effectively remove it from the holster and aimed it at the door from which the flashes of blaster fire originated from.

Sure enough, in an explosion of sparks, their cousin bolted out of the doorway firing behind her with a grimace on her face as she sped toward The Stargazer. A large number of tracer bolts ricocheted around her as she dodged and danced her way toward her boarding ramp. Mina's blaster unloaded and just about every shot missed the doorway by a good 2 meters. As Miriah rapidly approached her ship, its prestart engines hummed to life with an efficient smooth sound. Obo glanced annoyingly at his sister at her misfires. Mina felt a tinge of embarrassment.

Obo's saber hissed to life. Before he could even set one foot in front of the other, Mina grabbed his shoulder. 'NO! Wait! Watch, Obo!' Her eyes glazed over in admiration.

Guard after guard exited and fell to Miriah's blaster fire as she ducked behind one of the Stargazer's landing gears until it choked the entryway with the dead. She looked over in their direction and gave an gesture with their hand that she yanked back as a particularly accurate shot ended in a shower of sparks against the gear behind which she positioned herself.

With his sister's unusually strong grip on his shoulder, Obo heaved the saber toward the door just has two guards began to attempt to step over their downed comrades. Their shrieks of pain echoed through the hangar as the hissing lightsaber cut across both of their chests before dutifully returning to Obo's outstretched hand. Obo's pang of guilt returned as he realized he was once again acting on basal instinct instead of the professed logic of the Jedi Order.

Miriah disappeared up the ramp of the Stargazer. Obo and Mina took her lead and backed up the ramp into The Iron Pig but not before Obomonus feinted another throw toward the door. Mina effectively dragged her brother back through the door as it groaned shut.

The ship slanted at a harsh angle causing brother and sister to slide down the hallway into one of the bulkheads. Mina reached under her rump, grabbed a loose hydrospanner and tossed it aside with little care.

'Bowdaar! Go! Go! Go!'

An affirmative warble erupted from the cockpit and The Pig's cannons shrieked to life. Obo and Mina glanced at each other before regaining their feet and stumbling toward Bowdaar's position.

The Iron Pig and The Stargazer exploded through the roof of the hangar in unison and shot upward like lasers fired from a dual cannon toward the heavens.

The Pig's dampeners stuttered online as the hazy atmosphere of Tattooine was left behind them and the nauseating pitching of her halls ceased with a shudder of her bulkheads.

Mina, now seated next to Bowdaar gave an extended sigh of relief.

'Thank you sweetheart.' She scratched Bowdar lovingly on the head and he returned her affection with a shake of the head and a deep-throated chirp.

The ship's communication console beeped. Mina looked at her brother who had his head laid back in one of the cockpit's chairs displaying his exhaustion. He simply nodded his head in affirmation, peeled himself out of the seat and followed Mina toward the terminal. She depressed the orange button to receive the call. Miriah's visage appeared on the holo.

'You're both idiots!', she calmly stated and then the holo cut off suddenly. Obo had his mouth open to greet is cousin but did not have a moment to extend his kind words. The siblings gave each other a look and trotted back to the cockpit where Bowdaar piloted The Pig with an efficiency that only a Wookie could perform. The Stargazer banked and shot out of sight as its efficient hyperdrive hummed to life.

Obomonus stared after the hyperspace trail as Mina stepped beside him with an accusatory expression splayed across her face.

He glanced at her and pretended to take particular interest in a far-off star.

'YOU! You called Miriah!' She stuttered.

'Shut up Mina. You were in trouble. I felt it through The Force. I didn't even know she received my transmission'. He turned and began walking out of the cockpit but Miriah's hand on his arm stopped him short.

'Do you have any idea how embarrassing this is for me?'

Obo yanked his arm free of her grasp. 'You needed help Mina and I don't carry Jedi Knights in my pocket. Who else would I call?' He tromped his way out of the room and Mina was left alone with Bowdaar. She leaned against the dirty navigation pane a moment with her head bowed. She inhaled the stale artificial recycled air that reeked of warm Wookie and regained her composure. Her eyes trailed after The Stargazer.

'Coruscant, my friend'.

The Iron Pig squeeled to life as the stars turned to streaks in the window.


End file.
